A spur of the moment invite took me to the M&S Arena, Liverpool to see Ant Middleton last week. I knew of “SAS Who Dares Wins”, but I hadnt really followed it. So, I didnt know what to expect from his tour : “Mind over Muscle”.
Ant’s positive attitude and mindset takes a hard stance – but fairs fair, you don’t get to be in the SAS without it.
“Step away from a blame culture. Lose any victim mentality and be honest with yourself” … it sounds so hard, doesn’t it? Especially after the pandemic.
And yet, it turned out that Ant, one of six, who hadn’t talked to his siblings for years, lost his Mum during the pandemic. So the promise he made to his Mum, to have all six of them at her bedside when the time came, went out of the window.
The positive the Ant took from her passing was that she brought all the family back together again. They all now make an effort to be on better terms, and keep in touch when they can.
“Let go of what you can’t control, and surround yourself with positive people”
“Stagnancy breeds a negative mindset”. He was talking about how so many times, we can all have splinters in our bum from sitting on the fence putting off making a decision. It can be frightening, right ?
Have you ever thought about getting in your car to go somewhere ? You know where you want to go, but not always sure how you’re going to get there. You hit road works, or a one way system … you make the decision to find another way around it. A small step perhaps. But one always leads to another, then another .. then another.
Ant took pride in his honesty, and he doesn’t proclaim to be perfect, but who is?
“I’m not an academic”. “I’m not a book worm”. “Me and social media don’t work”. He made no bones about the fact that he wasn’t on the best of terms with Channel 4😂. He’s been trained long and hard to shoot to kill. He’s been shot at too.
Ultimately, these are the extremities of what some of our service men and women are called upon to do, and the millions before them. For their Country. For their people.
From the beginning, Ant praised all those serving in the British Forces commenting “they are the finest in the world” for which he received a cheer, and a round of applause.
How incredibly grateful and proud I am to have the finest British service men and women in our corner, and all those before them. Also for their mind. Also for their muscle, and an endless list of worthy traits. How about you ?